Priests of the Absurd: What Are Stand-Up Comedians Doing When They Invite Us to Laugh at Their Failures?

Abstract Self-deprecating, self-belittling, stand-up comedy is a staple. Comedians invite their audience to laugh at them, and their failures. If they are successful, they will report on their failure in a way that is amusing, and the audience will laugh. In this paper, I want to think about such invitations. I will try to characterise what the stand-up comedian might be doing when they do that: what are they doing? I also want to ask why they are doing it, and why are they doing it before an audience. I argue that a self-deprecating performance is a highly distinctive form of reflective activity that allows a comedian to ministrate in the philosophical task of exploring, and guiding their audience in, the art of human existential absurdity. Their being able to do this is one of the reasons we value such comedy as the artform it is.